‘Money Heist: Korea’ Dominates Netflix Viewership Charts in First Week of Release

Following on the trend of Korean series like Squid Game and All of Us Are Dead being massive hits on Netflix, yet another series has come to the streaming platform. Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, the Korean adaptation of the Spanish hit crime series “La Casa de Papel” — popularly known as Money Heist — has topped the non-English top ten chart of the streaming platform.

Money Heist: Korea was played for a whopping 33.7 million hours on the streamer within the first three days of its release on June 24. Besides topping the global charts, the series also topped the charts in South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand. The number of hours streamed placed the show as the third most-watched show on the streaming giant overall behind Stranger Things season 4 with 76.9 million hours and The Umbrella Academy season 3 with a staggering 124.5 million hours viewed.

Under the guidance of the Professor played by Álvaro Morte, the original Money Heist series was a major hit on an international scale. The Professor, from an offsite location, leads a group of thieves who break into the Royal Mint and the Bank of Spain. The Korean spin on it is staged in a unified Korea as eight thieves led by a shadowy mastermind overtake the nation’s mint. It also offers a cast that mirrors the characters from the original. Ryu Yong-jae writes the series and Netflix was glad to have worked with him on this remake.

Netflix Korea director of content, Keo Lee reveals that the company sort to bring Korean originality to the remake while also appealing to an international audience.

Money Heist: Korea joins a growing list of K-drama series to make a big splash on Netflix while bringing Korean acting to the consciousness of the globe. It joins other Korean series like Business Proposal, Squid Game and All of Us Are Dead in taking the number 1 spot on the charts. The series is directed by Kim Hong-sun and written by Yong-jae, Kim Hwan-chae and Choe Sung-jun. This crime drama stars Yoo Ji-tae, Kim Yunjin, Park Hae-soo, Lee Won-jong and Park Myung-hoon.

All six episodes of Money Heist: Korea are available to stream on Netflix.